Recruiters suspended
for contract substitution

THE Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has suspended recruitment agencies Aquagem International and Sharikat al Saedi International after some 45 overseas Filipino workers they deployed were victimized through contract substitution by their employers.

The Department of Labor and Employment said the workers were sent to Libya but 13 ran away last February followed by 32 in April. Based on initial investigation, labor attaché to Tripoli Nasser Mustafa said the two recruiters had first asked the OFWs to sign the standard contract, which had been verified by the POEA. But before they left for Libya, the workers were forced to sign another contract stipulating lower pay and terms and conditions different from those found in the standard contract.

Labor Secretary Marianito Roque said that aside from having their license suspended, the two recruitment firms should shoulder the repatriation expenses of the OFWs. He said Cifex World was also made to settle the workers’ unpaid salaries before their repatriation and issue the workers final exit permit. He said the Philippine government is also placing Cifex World under the POEA watch list.

In another development, the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment prevented the departure of 11 Filipino workers for war-torn Afghanistan which is covered by a deployment ban. Vice President Noli de Castro, concurrent TFAIR head, said the 11 were promised $1,300 monthly to work as carpenters, plumbers, and electricians in Kandahar Airfield, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization base in Afghanistan.